Face Tat

Sargent House; 2010

Find it at:

Throughout his career, drummer Zach Hill has been especially prolific: in the sheer number of his collaborations (Hella, Marnie Stern, Prefuse 73, Wavves, etc.), in the size of his extended discography, and in the ferocious style with which he assaults his drums. All this constant action has understandably led to moments of both brilliance and self-indulgence. Hill's 2008 solo debut, Astrological Straits, was an impressive but exhausting affair, filled beyond the brim with non-stop, torrential drumming. On Face Tat, however, Hill puts as much focus on his oddball, malformed songs as on his world-class musicianship, resulting in an album that feels more compact, slightly less metallic, and altogether more fun.

When you've recorded and toured with as many different musicians as Hill has, you can assemble a pretty talented roster of guests. Face Tat features contributions from Devendra Banhart, Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73) and members of No Age, Hella, and Deerhoof. There's such a rotation of guests, in fact, that it hardly resembles a solo project at all. Yet each of these songs is shot through with Hill's distinctive personality and the restless, athletic agility of his drumming, forming a cohesive whole despite the music's frequent hairpin turns and switchbacks.

About the last thing any Hill song would seem to need is more drums, but that is exactly what the opening "Memo to the Man" delivers, as Hill is joined on percussion by Deerhoof's Greg Saunier. Though that might conjure images of a drum clinic at Guitar Center, the track leaves a refreshingly light footprint by emphasizing its squiggly melodic instrumental hooks over what is, by any standard, some pretty fine drumming.

Several other tracks here, such as the frantic "House of Hits" or "Burner in the Video", sport memorable but similarly off-kilter hooks, alternately calling to mind the work of Liars, Battles, or vintage Brainiac. The album's slightly disorienting effect is due in part to its construction, which according to Hill began with sound sources that included smashing computer screens, street-level field recordings, and peeing on a stack of Rolling Stone magazines. Though it would be tricky to pinpoint any of those exact sounds, such techniques do help explain why so many sounds on Face Tat are difficult to identify. This is particularly the case on "Ex-Ravers" and "Jackers", two tracks that are such mosaics of disconnected noises and shifting perspectives that they can appear to get lost in their own haphazard circuitry.

In contrast, some of Face Tat's best moments occur when Hill and company simply pin their ears back and go. "The Sacto Smile", which features No Age's Dean Spunt and Randy Randall, is a wildly cathartic punk screed, as is the near-anthemic "Total Recall", either of which could slip handsomely onto a Lightning Bolt album. As is the case on most of the album, Hill's distorted vocals can sometimes seem like an afterthought, but perhaps they are intended to be just one of the many ingredients squashed into the album's vibrant mixture, to be heard as one final act of creation-through-destruction.